The majority of tourists comes to Versailles to be astonished by the Château and its gardens, but rarely goes any further in the surrounding city. Surely, if one comes to Versailles for the day from Paris, there’s not much time (and energy) left to do much more. Only visiting the Château and the huge park around it can easily take a full day. It’s too bad because the town of Versailles is quite charming.

Versailles was a village when Louis XIV decided to build his Château and create a city in line with his image. After ordering the demolition of the village(!), he gave land to the nobles who wanted to live near the court. He planned three wide tree-lined avenues emanating from the palace and gave clear instructions about the architectural style of the houses to be built. He also had two large stables built to house his hundreds of horses and carriages. Even though most of the 17th-century buildings are long gone, the town keeps a nice architectural unity and its tree-lined avenues give it a… royal feel!

We went to Versailles on Sunday afternoon and wandered around town before making a short stop in the gardens of the palace.

Thanks. Yes, the gardens are spectacular and well worth seeing. For some reasons, so far, we have only been in winter so we really have to go back in summer to see everything in bloom. The little town is actually also very interesting.

I have absolutely no idea. You are absolutely right that as you go up, the uniformity seems to disappear. Probably, because these floors were built afterwards in a time when there were less controls on the uniformity…but that is simply a wild guess!!!